<p>Respect for Transport – Performance Summary Report November 2010</p><p>1. Introduction The Respect for Transport Partnership was set up in 2005 to:  Improve public perceptions about safety on public transport thus leading to a greater willingness to utilise it as for everyday travel.  Develop and promote socially acceptable behaviour on public transport;  Reduce opportunities for and deter anti-social behaviour on and around public transport;  Ensure anti-social behaviour is challenged and perpetrators are brought to justice; </p><p>Active Partners from the start were  Nottingham City Transport;  Nottingham Express Transit;  Greater Nottingham Transport Partnership, the Big Wheel;  Nottingham City Council  Nottinghamshire Police In recent years other partners have become involved such as  British Transport Police  Nottinghamshire County Council  trentbarton</p><p>2. Rationale behind RfT Surveys showed that a major constraint on public transport use and growth in urban areas is fear for safety and security. Many would-be passengers are put off travelling by bus because of the perception, kindled by perceptions of vandalism, that public transport is somehow shoddy and dangerous.</p><p>Although the problem of crime is small around the transport system, perceptions of crime are magnified when an incident on a bus, tram or at a stop is publicised - especially in national papers.</p><p>In addition there was . a real concern amongst transport operators for the safety of their own staff from violent behaviour, verbal abuse and spitting . the costs of window and other bus damage was high as was the cost of staff absence from assaults - vandalism on NCT buses alone had been costing well over £100,000 a year even excluding the cost of lost driver time due to sickness and dealing with the incidents. Incidents relating to passengers and staff and bus crime were increasing and operators felt the police were not responding to crime on buses.</p><p>Respect for Transport; was a call to resolve the issues facing public transport use in Nottingham including vandalism, fare-dodging, disorder and anti-social behaviour.</p><p>3. What was done Initially the partnership was funded by a £90k capital grant from the Greater Nottingham Partnership to pilot on-vehicle CCTV on trams which recorded offences against staff and passengers plus a revenue contribution from NET and NCT of £30k p.a. each for 3 years. This revenue was to pay for a Police Beat Manager (a police officer responsible for managing ASB, enforcement and criminal incidents around the public transport system and for police operations and publicity through the media and advertising on vehicles. From thereon partners have contributed funding and resources aimed at enhancing the perceptions and reality of safe and secure travel. The following capital programme costing well over £1.5m has been delivered by the partners • NCT – Roll out of on-board CCTV on all buses – Perspex screens between passengers and drivers – Laminated film to reinforce driver cab screens • NET – Improved CCTV and Lighting at stops – Roll out of CCTV on Trams • Nottingham City Council – Improved lighting and CCTV at all major bus stops – Improved CCTV coverage around bus stops • Notts County Council – Contribution to installation of CCTV at Nottingham and Hucknall Stations</p><p>N.B. Greater Nottingham Partnership has contributed to some of the shared infrastructure schemes.</p><p>The revenue funding has been used to support the following activities (all are covered in more detail later in this report)  Some initial tasks to set the platform for improved working together  Gateways where o inspectors from the transport operators and police staff check tickets on a bus or tram route o police physically enforce bus lanes and taxi waiting/access N.B. the focus in more recent years has been on bus lane and tram enforcements rather than fare evasion  Incident follow-up  Schools liaison and follow-up  Use of a ‘Trojan’ bus to entrap groups of youths who regularly throw missiles at buses  Advertising Campaigns  Press Releases  Investigations of Ticket Fraud</p><p>In mid 2005 a police beat manager was appointed and the partnership completed initial tasks to set the platform for improved team working:-  Building relationships with the Councils and Transport Operators  Introducing new and improved incident reporting systems  Clarifying the ‘rules’ for allowing police officers including CPSO’s to travel free on all local transport vehicles, publicising those rules to Police officers and promoting the reassuring safety implications to the passengers  Working with the Transport Officers, Police Forensics department, CPS and Magistrates to develop and publicise to them all the improved ‘Spit Testing’ process. Being spat upon had been a major problem for the tram conductors and NCT drivers, the police were unwilling at first to carryout the DNA tests for free but by looking at the whole process all barriers were removed and prosecutions were successfully followed through. Spitting is much less a problem now but tests are still used as a last measure in identifying people who have carried out such assaults. There was a campaign to promote the fact that perpetrators of spitting would be tracked down by DNA testing.</p><p>Since then the Beat Manager has spoken to and visited a number of other Police Forces with a view to putting into practice other methods & operations in Nottingham. West Midlands Police, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Edinburgh have all assisted both NET & NCT in planning & preparation for Trojan Bus Operations which are quoted as best practice for forthcoming planned tram lines in Scotland.</p><p>In association with the bus operators joint Gateway operations were instigated whereby transport inspectors and police officers jointly checked tickets on a route or at a stop. Keeping the balance between frightening passengers, holding them up and giving reassurance was of concern but the reaction of the vast majority of honest passengers was very supportive as was the media. The initial gateways did provide some fare evaders who were carrying weapons or had jumped bail, for example, however this type of operation has seen a diminishing return in terms of crime and ticket evasion. Around 8 or 10 per year are now used more to promote the fact that such joint operations happen in Nottingham. </p><p>In 2007 police manually started enforcing bus lane rules and generally these are successful in terms of being seen to support the enforcement the majority of drivers support (in a 2004 GN Perception Survey of 2000 residents the majority of respondents to the question stated that buses should have more priority on main roads and that existing bus lanes should be better enforced). However there are only two places in the city that this can be done as car drivers need to be seen in the bus lane and then pulled over to get a warning or a fixed fine. As a result around 650 warnings or fines per year are given and, as is seen with many transport incidents, the perpetrator is often found to have taken part in other criminal activities - there have been charges made regarding drugs in the car, no MOT’s, no Insurance and only provisional licenses. It is likely these types of operation will be carried out in order to be seen on the street but the City Council now have CCTV based methods of enforcing the lanes, some automatic from number plate recognition, where they can identify nearly 5000 car drivers illegally in bus lanes per month.</p><p>The Beat manager follows up on all incidents on the transport system tracking down CCTV pictures and helping police enquiries into the incidents. In the event it is school children they work with the school to identify the child and take action often with the parents of the child being involved.</p><p>There have been advertising campaigns jointly funded and with space being given at cost price on buses and trams, the two most prominent ones were:-  Reassurance about police travel on the buses  Warnings of DNA testing in the case of spitting incidents</p><p>Consideration was given as to whether joint operations, investigations and warnings or prosecutions should be publicised. Gateways and prosecutions were strongly publicised in the early years however more recently the priority has been to give reassurance that PT is safe and to publicise high profile cases where offenders are apprehended and no longer a threat to passengers or staff. Recently there have been only 3 or 4 media releases per annum.</p><p>Through police informants it became known in 2007/7that there was a ticket fraud whereby season tickets were being copied and used for travel by 30 or 40 people. This counterfeiting was investigated and stopped. </p><p>4. RfT Performance Over the years there have been some notable success including  Joint Plans and Resourcing of activities with the police  Jointly leveraging of capital and revenue funding.  Creating a stronger resourced partnership between Police and Transport Operators/Authorities  Improved reporting systems between the police and Transport Operators  Proactive Press Campaigns</p><p>In tandem with the improvements to physical infrastructure there has also been a new determination to tackle offenders on public transport and that has led to many successful prosecutions in the courts. These cases further reflect one of the most important but less ‘measurable’ outcomes of the Respect for Transport campaign: a new spirit of co-operation between Nottinghamshire police and city’s public transport managers and employees. This has been seen in various ways, from the effective teamwork that has become evident between police and public transport operators when jointly pursuing offenders, the physical presence of police officers on buses and trams, which has made staff and passengers feel safer, and the development of incident reporting and forensic sampling testing procedures between operators and police. There have been noticeable performance improvements in terms of  Perceptions of Security of staff and PT passengers  Reductions of assaults on staff and passengers (including spitting assaults)  More action on incidents of anti-social behaviour  Reductions in damage to buses and trams </p><p>Tram and bus employees have reported their satisfaction with the bigger police presence and speedier reaction to offences and, in one instance the Chief Constable Steve Green was thanked personally for his officers’ good work.</p><p> o Schools Programme Since late 2005 there have been nearly 300 schools related incidents. Many have required visits, the review of CCTV footage to identify the offenders, followed up by school and home visits, the issuing of Acceptable Behaviour Contract’s (ABCs – a commitment made with the offender and their parents to maintain good behaviour) and in extreme cases Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO’s). </p><p>There has been much pro-active preventative work between the police, schools and transport operators particularly through NCT’s Safemark project and Safety Zone where over 1500 year-5 & 6 children per annum. get briefed in an interactive way on public transport safety. A full list of these types of activities is provided in Appendix 1 below.</p><p>Use of a ‘Trojan’ bus to entrap groups of youths who regularly throw missiles at buses has helped reduce damage to buses, especially to windows, and increase safety of staff and passengers.</p><p>There has been year on year improvements from 166 school child related incidents in 2000 down to 36 in 2007. There has been a slight increase to an average of around 55 for the last few years however this is in a context where school buses are being used less and there has been a 225% increase in the number of under 18’s travelling on PT.</p><p> o Passenger Impact In Greater Nottingham travel on public transport has seen an increase in recent years, this is much against the national trend with the exception of London. There was a peak of around 76m trips per annum with 10m of those coming from tram trips in 2008/9. Between 2003/4 (when the latest trams first ran in Nottingham) and 2009/10 there was an increase in trips of over 10%. This growth is despite a reduction in 2009/10 which is assumed to be a result of the economic recession. Even with these increases the satisfaction with public transport has improved markedly over the years despite some increases in people’s expectations. Buses have seen, according to City Council surveys, an increase in bus user satisfaction levels from under 80% in 2003 to around 90% today Trams have also seen improvements in satisfaction up to its present level of 92% </p><p>The bus and tram surveys used to calculate these satisfaction levels consider customer service, safety perceptions and cost but it is clear that in recent years passenger perceptions of satisfaction are driven by punctuality and reliability issues hence the growing importance of targeting the issues which if not enforced impact on punctuality and reliability – blocked bus lanes and tram tracks. However it seems the Councils and Operators have performed exceptionally well as punctuality and reliability are improving in a time of strong growth in trip numbers locally. N.B. There is not sufficient time to research this but it is possible by reflecting on evidence and considering motivational models, that poor perceptions of safety are a barrier to PT use and demotivates people from using PT but once safety is perceived as acceptable it is no longer considered important either as a barrier or motivator. This is worth considering after reading this next section which is perhaps more directly relevant to RfT </p><p>The City Council regularly survey bus passenger perceptions of safety and have found • People are more fearful on public transport after dark than during daylight, especially so with women and young people. • Concerns for personal security after dark are greatest to and from the stop or station and while waiting • On the bus both women and men have least concerns about their personal security (compared with waiting for the bus, travelling by train, and walking to the stop or home from the stop). • Young people more likely to feel unsafe waiting on a train platform and walking from the stop or station to their home – this is also the case with tram passengers</p><p>Passengers consider the following enhances their perceptions of safety • On board – The presence of staff – their quality and training – physical security measures (CCTV) to support them. – joint operations between police and revenue protection staff on buses which • assist the police in helping them clear up other crime and apprehending offenders, some prolific • have the effect of reducing crime – specifically assaults and thefts from motor vehicles in a zone 300 metres either side of the bus corridor. – Provision of night buses. • Waiting at stops – Effective CCTV and a well lit uniform environment – stops and shelters visible from the road, and having a public telephone nearby. – Bus shelters repaired quickly In general the trends for day or night travel are similar so from daytime view above it can be seen that even though perceptions of crime generally in society are worsening the overall position on public transport has improved - as would be expected of a partnership programme which encouraged improved staff training, CCTV, lighting, repair of shelters and joint operations between police and transport operators. </p><p>Perception of Safety: Daytime</p><p>100 )</p><p>% 95 (</p><p> y t e f a S 90 d e v i e c r e 85 P</p><p> f o</p><p> x e d n</p><p>I 80</p><p>75</p><p>70</p><p>Quarter Ending</p><p>Home to Bus Stop At Bus Stop Travelling on a Bus Linear (Travelling on a Bus) By way of example the City Council has worked with the company who maintain and repair bus shelters in the city and by a joint programme they have reduced bus shelter damage by over 290% due to anti-vandal panels, improved lighting and CCTV and speedy replacement and repair. This has helped improve people's perception of safety at bus stops.</p><p>However of course the large dip in perceptions of safety in 2007 was of great concern and additional work was done on investigating the performance as the period saw a reduction in assaults on either staff or passengers.</p><p>The partnership’s conclusions from this research were that  People’s perceptions of crime generally in an area have an impact on those of safety across the board including the transport system  Perceptions of crime are driven by what people read in the papers, hear about or see  Statistically 2003 was a bad year for crime in the City and serious crime rates were reducing thereafter but perceptions last a lot longer and play out in different ways . 2007 saw a slight increase in crime generally but importantly there were a few high profile cases from previous years which were used by the local and national media for even more high profile scare stories and these were not balanced by good stories. For example Nottingham gun crime was very high profile in the media. . All this took its toll on perceptions of safety across the board including transport in 2007</p><p>However there are still occasional assaults on passengers with a high in 2007/8 of 25 but there has been a general reduction in recent years and in 2009/10 there were only 9 such assaults with less than 3 per quarter being the norm now.</p><p> o Bus and Tram Operator Staff Impact Perhaps the biggest benefactor of the RfT programme that can be shown quantifiably are NCT and NET who have seen good reductions in assaults on their staff.</p><p>In the early 2000’s as many as 35 such physical assaults causing injury and 50 spitting or verbal assaults were taking place per year on NCT buses. In 2005 there were 26 incidents causing physical injury to drivers and 25 where there was no injury, there were also two spitting incidents (assaults were not always reported and spitting was more prevalent on trams). NCT and NET unions were very dissatisfied and were concerned NCT and NET were doing insufficient for their staff’s safety. With the use of spit kits, CCTV, screens, customer service improvements and a willingness to report and follow-up on assaults this level of assaults was more than halved by 2006 and for example in the first 8 months of 2010 there have been 6 such assaults and only half have been physical. </p><p>As has been mentioned elsewhere spitting is a problem which can greatly upset staff and bring health risks. There were 17 in 2008 however since then it has reduced to an average of one or two incidents per quarter The impact of assaults on resulting staff absence cost is hard to pin down as absence management has improved in most organisations in the last few years however this is a reasonable representation of the figures: . In 2004 there were 66 Drivers assaulted and 1874 working days lost through assaults with well over £300k lost in terms of sick and replacement pay . using conservative estimates excluding inflation, in 2005 there were 567 working days lost from assaults – a reduction of 70% and in 2006 221 days. This over the years shows a saving of nearly £94k per annum. . In the first 9 months of 2010 119 days were lost and following some review it is possible this figure has been overstated by 24 days.</p><p>As stated above CCTV, screens around drivers, spit kits, training and communications campaigns have all had a bearing but it is clear the partnership through funding and their broad range of activity have had a discernable impact. </p><p> o Bus and Tram Cost Impact Vandalism takes many different forms but the major ones the operators see are general acts of vandalism to the vehicles from damage to seats, graffiti and damage to windows. </p><p>Damage costs are not easy to analyse but from information provided to the partnership by NCT the next two paragraphs show a reasonable representation of the situation.</p><p>For general damage the number of incidents was as high as 208 in NCT in 2006/7 and there have been large reductions year by year since then with 42 in 2007/8, 22 in 2009/10 and an average of 2 per quarter in 2010. This has again been for a number of reasons including on-bus CCTV, improved seat design, more work with schools and improved follow-up of incidents.</p><p>Window damage which has always been prevalent during school holidays has also been reduced by a number of actions including on-bus, shelter and general CCTV, Trojan bus operations, schools liaison and improved follow-up of incidents. NCT suffered £100k of such damage in 2005, over 200 such incidents at a cost of around £13k per quarter in 2007 until in the first nine months of 2010 there have only been 45 window damage incidents at a cost of £15k – just over 1 per week</p><p> o Criminal Activity Prior to RfT the operators did not feel the police took their incidents seriously and even with major assaults on staff or passengers response was slow. The Beat manager and subsequent working with the police has changed the perceptions completely and there is no doubt that response times on emergency incidents has improved and the regular review of incidents reported by NCT and NET staff and then followed up by the beat manager has resulted in more warnings, a few charges and prosecutions, a couple of ASBO’s and a handful of ABC’s per annum. ASBO’s for offenders on the public transport system are very effective as are the ABC’s with school children. A total of 61 ABC's have now been issued and only one has seen a breach resulting in the offender being banned from NCT buses for a period of time. Contrary to the perceptions of many, incidents warranting police action are low when compared with on average over 75m trips a year in Greater Nottingham. However the small number of offences , prosecutions and penalties arising from incidents are publicised in the local media.</p><p>On bus crime has reduced from a high or 18 incidents per quarter in early 2008 to an average of 4 in each of the last 3 quarters</p><p>High quality CCTV on the transport systems, routes, stops and vehicles has proven to be very useful to the police even though review of CCTV can be long and tedious. There is evidence that it is being used to  Confirm facts at scene of crime  Identify offenders  Help resolve crimes - for example the police have commented o ‘At least 3 major crime investigations had been provided with importance evidence’. o ‘We thank the City Council for providing images in a serious murder enquiry’. It is re-assuring that calls for CCTV footage can have such an important impact. </p><p>5. Conclusions and Exit Strategy Since 2005 regular reviews of the objectives have been carried out with the aim of having more focus on fewer key activities. The key objectives have remained much the same with the following revisions  It was recognised that the volume of ASB related incidents per trip is very small and it is necessary to more strongly keep reassuring the public of the safety they enjoy  In the early years we agreed to try and reduce not only ASB but also crime on the public transport systems. This introduced activities to the programme such as encouraging police travel on buses and trams  Acts of spitting and verbal and physical assault on staff were of major concern at the start of the partnership and are less so now.  Perceptions of safety on buses and bus stops has improved and more effort now goes into bus lane and bus/tram gateway enforcement for reliability and punctuality reasons. More recent use of CCTV enforcement is proving much more effective  Unfortunately the number of schools related incidents have risen even though it is much less proportionally than the increased level of use of public transport by school children in the City  Enforcement activity generally around the PT network is becoming more successful and reliant on Technology</p><p>The main problems of 5 years ago are a thing of the past and the requirement for the future is . Continued good day to day working relationships between operators and the police . Continued joint activities particularly with the schools . Improved and appropriate media activity promoting the low levels of threat on buses, trams and at stops. </p><p>So a future programme might be much reduced to  Getting, analysing and following up on incident and performance data  Positive messages about safety on the transport system  Enforcement – schools, bus lanes and taxis  Working with Schools  Special projects if they arise </p><p>As a result . the operations group has been disbanded and day to day activities will be conducted between each operator and the police. Regular meetings are being held between operators and the police, contact details, reporting lines and structures have been agreed. Public Relations plans and protocols are to be agreed. . the strategy group will move within the Bus Quality Partnership, joining a sub-group on the Safety theme. NET and Police will be part of that group which will o report into the BQP o manage a communications plan o provide performance updates o run joint projects within the group e.g. the schools programme Appropriate protocols for working within the BQP sub-group are being agreed . it is proposed this report be agreed by the Respect for Transport partners and be used to recognise the work of the partners and contribute to best practice. A fact sheet will be produced to inform any PR which can be enhanced by recognition of the partnership’s performance – see draft in Appendix 2 Appendix 1 - Schools Programme  Safemark The police and NCT work together on a schools programme to encourage good behaviour and use of public transport. Children are given advice using video, website and resource packs, work on projects and get awards for good performance - over 2000 primary school children are engaged in this per annum.</p><p> Safetyzone: There has been involvement in six of these bi-annual events. Each fortnightly event sees interaction with approximately 1,600 Year 5 & 6 children before they progress to senior schools (& for many before they start using public transport) encouraging them into safe & acceptable behaviour in & around public transport. Engaging approx. 10,000 children has had some impact on reducing bad behaviour as children remember team members from Safety Zone years after on later school visits. The transport team scores consistently high marks from the teachers that accompany the children. The partnership built up between police and other providers (including transport) also has a huge impact on the positive perception of the force by the young people attending. </p><p> 999 Challenge/4uth: These engagement events are aimed at Years 7-9 Some of these are during term time & some in the summer school holidays.. There have been approximately 8 each year with nearly 1000 children per year.</p><p>N.B. The culmination of years of hard work & attendance at Safetyzone/999 Challenge events saw the team recently honoured at a Civic Reception at County Hall hosted by Leader of the County Council Kay Cutts who visited the Safetyzone event in April 2010 & was most impressed </p><p> School Assemblies: The team have visited a number of schools (primary and secondary) throughout the City to address issues such as stone throwing and unsafe behaviour on buses. They use CCTV images to show how the cameras act as a deterrent against any future incidents. This has been very successful in reducing incidents in particular areas (e.g. around Bigwood School). There is an assembly lesson plan in place ready for any future visits.</p><p> Prison Me No Way (see http://www.pmnw.co.uk/ ) for more info. Since 2009 the team have been involved in events targeted at year group9 or 10. The aim is to get the message across that small anti-social incidents can easily escalate into more serious crime leading to prison, this is especially relevant to transport related incidents. There are 5 events per year engaging 1000 children per year in total, more events are planned through to July 2011.</p><p> Smile No Bullying/Mencap/Youth Parliament The team attend conferences/open days/workshops/forums around the Notts area & have built up an excellent rapport with the staff & clients from these establishments. </p><p> Parking issues around schools: Most schools get some sort of issue with parking at opening & closing times which can be problematic for bus services. If a particular route is having a regular problem, through direct liaison with the police, such problems have been resolved relatively quickly. Appendix 2 RfT Fact Sheet . capital programme costing well over £1.5m has been delivered by the partners . the City Council now have CCTV based methods of enforcing bus lanes, some automatic from number plate recognition, where they can identify nearly 5000 car drivers illegally in bus lanes per month. . Schools o much pro-active preventative work between the police, schools and transport operators particularly through NCT’s Safemark project and Safety Zone where over 1500 year-5 & 6 children per annum get briefed in an interactive way on public transport safety. o year on year improvements from 166 school child related incidents in 2000 down to 36 in 2007. o a slight increase to an average of around 55 for the last few years however this is in a context where school buses are being used less and there has been a 225% increase in the number of under 18’s travelling on PT. . Passenger satisfaction o Since 2003/4 there has been was an increase in PT trips of over 10%. o Buses have seen, according to City Council surveys, an increase in bus user satisfaction levels from under 80% in 2003 to around 90% today o Trams have also seen improvements in satisfaction up to its present level of 92% o reduced bus shelter damage by over 290% . Bus and Tram Operator Staff o In the early 2000’s as many as 35 such physical assaults causing injury and 50 spitting or verbal assaults were taking place per year on NCT buses o in the first 9 months of 2010 there have been 6 such assaults and only half have been physical. o In 2004 there 1874 NCT working days lost through assaults with well over £300k lost in terms of sick and replacement pay. In the first 9 months of 2010 119 days were lost o Over £100k of NCT window damage in 2005 - in the first nine months of 2010 there have only been 45 window damage incidents at a cost of £15k o On bus crime has reduced from a high or 18 incidents per quarter in early 2008 to an average of 4 in each of the last 3 quarters </p>